$100 bill

The good news is that week four of this 52 week make money challenge allowed me to knock off the largest amount on the chart. It’s always a good week when the highest number gets crossed off the chart. Much like in week three, I made more than the $51 from a last-minute pet sitting opportunity.

This was a quick two-night job that netted me $100 that was close to where I was, so it wasn’t a huge disruption of my normal routines. It also provided a wonderful view to look at while doing the job:

Even better news is that since people have found out that I’m willing to do shorter periods than previously, my calendar is beginning to fill up more than in the past. This is both a good and bad thing. It’s good in that it’s fairly easy money that doesn’t disrupt me much from the other things I want to do, but it’s also going to make my goal of decluttering a bit more difficult as I’ll be moving from place to place ,which doesn’t give me a solid base from which to sell the stuff that I have. I’m thinking that I may bring a few of the items along with me to try to sell while house sitting, but I’m not sure how well that will work out until I actually try it.

Another interesting potential money-maker fell into my lap this week. When I went to the bank, I asked for a couple of $100 bills. As I always do with all bills I get, I checked the serial number to see if it happened to be interesting since bills with unique serial numbers can often be sold for more than their face value. These are the ones that I received:

Both are “birthday” notes or “special occasion” notes for anyone that happened to have a birthday or special occasion such as an anniversary in 1997. While there are a few things that could make these bills stronger, they have a lot of good qualities. They are both in brand new condition so there are not creases or folds. The 1997 is at the beginning of the serial number, not in the middle. It’s actually a pretty good date for a birthday since the person would be turning 17 in 2014 and will be even better for next year when they turn 18. The serial numbers are consecutive, so both go well as a pair. Since they both have a lot going for them, I think that I should be able to sell them both fairly easily and make anywhere from $10 – $25 each if I can find the right person wanting them.

Goals for Week 4

I’ve done quite a bit of sorting of the stuff that I have, and I’ll be able to place some of it up to sell this week. I don’t have any house sitting plans this week, so I should have the time and be around to do it. I haven’t done much selling on Craigslist, but I think I’ll give that a try first since it’s so much less expensive than listing on eBa,y and there is no shipping required. I have my fingers crossed that will work out well.

For those of you who are also doing this challenge, how did your current week go?